Forget 7pm and even 8pm meals, there\u2019s a growing trend for an earlier dinner.<\/p>\n
New data from OpenTable<\/a> shows there\u2019s been an 11% increase in 6pm bookings in London, and a 6% rise nationally, compared to the year before. <\/p>\n Meanwhile a report from Zonal<\/a> clocked that the UK\u2019s average dinner time is now 6.12pm.<\/p>\n \u201cGen Z are eating dinner at 6pm \u2013 and it\u2019s because they\u2019re losers,\u201d reads an Evening Standard opinion piece, which nods to the fact young people seem to be driving the trend for an earlier dinner. <\/a><\/p>\n But are Gen Z actually onto something with their 6pm dining habits? Scientists think so.<\/p>\n When is the best time to eat dinner?<\/strong><\/p>\n From a longevity perspective, Valter Longo<\/a>, director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, previously told GQ<\/a> there\u2019s no set hour to stop eating \u2013 it\u2019s more to do with when your bedtime is.<\/p>\n He suggested<\/a> we should stop eating three hours before bedtime, because eating any later can disrupt our sleep (poor sleep, especially in middle age<\/a>, has been linked to conditions like dementia), and may change how our body burns energy.<\/p>\n So if you go to bed at 10pm (hi, hello, it\u2019s me), then really you should be aiming to have finished eating by 7pm \u2013 meaning a 6pm dinnertime isn\u2019t so terrible. <\/p>\n Longo added that the longest-living people he\u2019s tracked<\/a> stopped eating 12 hours before breakfast the following day.<\/p>\n Say you\u2019re an eight-hour sleeper; that might mean you stop eating four hours before you sleep and have breakfast immediately on waking, or that you stop eating three hours before sleep and wait an hour after waking to have breakfast.<\/p>\n